The colorful doodle on Google's home page on Children's Day Saturday - complete with a peacock and Mahatma Gandhi - is the creation of a 10-year-old Indian student and represents the country's diversity and culture. This is the first time that a 'made in India' doodle is being featured on the popular search engine.
Beating a good 4,000 other competitors, Puru Pratap Singh's doodle is based on the theme 'My India - Full of Life'. Singh is a Class 4 student of Gurgaon, the commercial hub adjoining the national capital.
A Google doodle is a creative Google logo that appears on some special days to commemorate scientific and artistic achievements, historic or seasonal events, and other local occasions.
According to Singh, the G in his doodle stands for the national bird peacock, O stands for wisdom, another O for India's scientific achievement, the next G for Kashmir being India's crown, L for the country's brave defence personnel and E for Mahatma Gandhi's values.
Encapsulating the rich diversity of the country in terms of the different religions practised here, highlighting latest scientific feats and also showcasing Mahatma Gandhi, Singh's winning entry is a riot of colors laden with aesthetics and deep seated meaning - exactly what Google doodles are all about.
"India is a country which has a blend of thousands of traditions and all religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism and Islam. It has developed a lot in the past few years. The discovery of water on the moon by the Indian scientists is a proof of this fact," Singh said.
"Indian culture is as vibrant as the colours of the peacock. Kashmir, the crown of India, is as serene as the peace bird and as pure as the lotus. We, the Indian citizens are also trying to fulfil Mahatma Gandhi's dream of educating each and every Indian child," he added.
In August this year, Google India decided to unleash the creativity of thousands of children in India with a doodling competition called Doodle4Google.
Open to students from Class 1 to 10, the contest was judged by a panel of judges that comprised renowned cartoonist N. Ponnappa, artist Raghava K.K. and the faculty of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
For over a decade, Google has been designing doodles for its home page and Dennis Hwang - the master doodler - has been driving this innovation.
Besides having his doodle featured on the Google home page all day on Children's Day, Singh has also been awarded a laptop, a T-shirt with his doodle and a Rs. 100,000 technology grant for his school.
